3 June 2015

1 Million dollars a day!

 This week the Canadian Electricity Association released “Vision 2050: The Future of Canada’s Electricity System”

This report recognises that several key drivers are converging to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape the Canadian electricity system.  New consumer requirements including demand for renewable energy, distributed generation and electric vehicles will force change. So too will changing weather patterns: resiliency is now a key issue for most utilities.  New technology is increasingly available to facilitate these changes. And finally, the legacy of previous underinvestment has caught up with us as utilities scramble to replace aging assets.

The message is clear, investment is needed now – let’s build for the future.

The first and strongest of the CEA’s recommendations is to “Accelerate Innovation and Customer Management of Energy”.

In a neat example of synchronicity, the Global Apollo Project went public this week.  It calls for a sustained global effort to make clean energy cheaper than coal.  It recommends that countries invest 0.02% of GDP into R&D on renewable energy, energy storage and smart grids.  This plan has been discussed by G7 energy ministers and is on the agenda for the G7 heads of state meeting in Germany on 7 June.

For Canada, 0.02% of GDP amounts to 1 million dollars per day.

This is a small price to pay to secure our energy future.